HP Releases Blackbird 002 Exhilaration Edition

By Joe Haygood | June 16, 2008

A few months ago, we had the pleasure of reviewing a nice HP Voodoo Blackbird 002, and it was a screamer of a beast.  But as they say in the computer world, things do not seem to stand still all that long.  Today, HP send out news of a new model in the Blackbird 002 lineup, called the Exhilaration.

The Exhilaration starts with a not so friendly $6600 pricetag, but for that price you get the latest of the latest in technology.  Some of this stuff is so new, it was just announced in the last few weeks at press events.  Just to name a few items:

• Intel Core2Quad Extreme Edition Q9770 – 3.2GHz Quad core, 45nm, and a 1600MHz front side bus, with liquid cooling
• Two GeForce GTX 280 Video Cards in SLi, with liquid cooling
• 2GB of Corsair High End DDR3 Memory running at 1600 MHz
• Creative Labs Fatality X-Fi 7.1 Audio card
• Super Multi-Format Optical Drive, plays DVDs, CDs, Blu-Ray, HD-DVDs and will burn DVDs and CDs

While this is a killer of a system, it does bring about the age of question of why didn’t they send us this rig instead of the other one to review.  Yeah, we reviewers are never happy with the older stuff, we always want to the new gear to make us happy.

HP Introduces HP Blackbird 002 Exhilaration Edition
PALO ALTO, Calif., June 16, 2008 – HP today announced the release of the HP Blackbird 002 Exhilaration Edition, built for the ultimate PC gaming and performance computing experience.
The system, developed by the company’s Voodoo business unit, is among the first to offer the newly released NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 GPU-based graphics cards with DirectX 10 support in an NVIDIA SLI configuration, along with the NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra MCP-based motherboard, DDR3 memory from Corsair, a liquid-cooled Intel® Core^TM 2 Extreme quad-core processor QX9770(1), Windows Vista® Ultimate 64-bit edition(2) and more.
Available for order today, the HP Blackbird 002 Exhilaration Edition balances the performance of its next-generation component suite with stable high-performance gaming and computing. Each Exhilaration Edition system includes a Voodoo keyboard and mouse, as well as special edition SkinIt skins.
“Since its unveiling last year, HP Blackbird 002 has been recognized as one of the best designed gaming and performance systems available,” said Rahul Sood, chief technology officer, HP Voodoo Business Unit. “With the HP Blackbird 002 Exhilaration Edition, we have made an incredible machine even better by leveraging the very latest in next generation components and conducting exhaustive tests to ensure that our customers enjoy a stable and immersive high-performance computing experience. We are also excited by the prospect that this system will accelerate more than just gaming applications through Visual Computing. We are so excited about this machine that I am personally signing every Exhilaration Edition Blackbird on behalf of our entire team.”
The HP Blackbird 002 Exhilaration Edition includes:
• Liquid-Cooled Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad-Core Processor QX9770(1) – With a core speed of 3.2 GHz, a 2 MB L2 Cache and a 1,600 MHz Front Side Bus, the Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core processor QX9770 is the heartbeat of the system. Experience games the way they were meant to be played, and run multimedia applications without breaking a sweat. With Intel’s 45nm CPU coupled with HP Voodoo’s liquid-cooling solution, users have power and performance at their disposal.
• NVIDIA Nforce 790i Ultra – The nForce 790i motherboard is Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core ready and designed to work and play well with the latest generation of Intel CPUs. It features full support for dual channel DDR3 1600MHz memory and beyond. And even though it arrives factory tuned for performance, the performance BIOS allows for complete end-user configuration.
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 graphics cards in SLI – The Blackbird Exhilaration Edition features dual liquid-cooled GeForce GTX 280 Gpus, each with 240 multi-threaded processing cores.
• Corsair 1,600 MHZ DDR3 memory – Corsair 1,600 MHz DDR3 memory, upgradeable to 4 GB(3), lets the Blackbird run the most demanding applications and games smoothly.
• Creative Audio Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtremegamer FATAL1TY Professional – True 7.1 digital sound that was developed specifically for gamers. X-RAM provides earth-shattering quality and performance enhancement for games with X-RAM support.
• Super Multi BLU-RAY disc and HD DVD-ROM drive- The Blackbird’s Super Multi Blu-Ray Disc and HD-DVD-ROM(4) drive gives users an expansive range of high-definition playback options. Users can enjoy next-generation media without sacrificing support for the titles already in their collection. Play BD-DVDs, HD-DVDs, DVDs, and CDs, and burn CDs and DVDs(5), all on a single optical drive.
• Windows Vista Ultimate- To support the high performance needs of its users, the Blackbird includes Windows Vista Ultimate, the most complete edition of Windows.
HP Blackbird 002 Exhilaration Edition can be ordered on the new Voodoo DNA website www.hp.com/voodoodna.
About HP
HP focuses on simplifying technology experiences for all of its customers – from individual consumers to the largest businesses. With a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure, HP is among the world’s largest IT companies, with revenue totaling $110.4 billion for the four fiscal quarters ended April 30, 2008. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at www.hp.com.
Intel and Intel Core are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Microsoft and Windows Vista are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

(1) Intel’s numbering is not a measurement of higher performance. Quad Core is a new technology designed to improve performance of multithreaded software products and hardware-aware multitasking operating systems and may require appropriate operating system software for full benefit. Not all customers or software applications will necessarily benefit from use of this technology. 64-bit computing on Intel architecture requires a computer system with a processor, chipset, BIOS, operating system, device drivers and applications enabled for Intel® 64 architecture. Processors will not operate (including 32-bit operation) without an Intel 64 architecture-enabled BIOS. Performance will vary depending on your hardware and software configurations. See www.intel.com/info/em64t for more information. This PC does not support the Intel Core 2 Extreme processor over-clocking feature.

(2) Certain Windows Vista product features require advanced or additional hardware. See www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/hardwarereqs.mspx and
www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/capable.mspx for details. Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor can help you determine which features of Windows Vista will run on your computer. To download the tool, visit www.windowsvista.com/upgradeadvisor.

(3)While your notebook may show 4GB available, up to 1GB of this memory may not be available with a 32 bit OS due to system resource requirements.

(4) As HD DVD and Blu-ray are new formats containing a new technologies, certain disc, digital connection, compatibility and/or performance issues may arise, and do not constitute defects in the product. Flawless playback on all systems is not guaranteed. In order for some HD-DVD and Blu-ray titles to play, they may require a DVI or HDMI digital connection and your display may require HDCP support. Note that DVD-RAM cannot read or write to 2.6GB Single Sided/5.2 GB Double Sided – Version 1.0 media.

(5)Don’t copy copyright-protected materials.